1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computing devices and user interfaces and, more particularly, to objects that are displayed by computing devices.
2. Background and Relevant Art
The computer industry continues to develop new and efficient means for communicating through computing devices. It is now commonplace, for example, for people to use their personal computers to communicate via e-mail, facsimile, instant message (IM), telephony, video teleconference (VTC), and so forth. This development of enabled communication through computerized devices has greatly enhanced the need for applications to store the contact information that is required for enabling communication and corroboration between contacts.
The term “contact,” as described herein, generally refers to any person, group, organization, household, or other type of identifiable entity. The term “contact information” generally refers to any information that may be considered relevant for contacting, accessing, corresponding with or otherwise communicating with a contact. Contact information may include, for example, the names, aliases, telephone numbers, email addresses, IM addresses, home addresses, and web addresses of a contact. Contact information can also refer to other types of information such as the status of a contact. For example, information indicating a contact is currently connected to a network or on a telephone line may also be broadly construed as contact information.
It can be difficult for anyone to remember all of the contact information that is associated with all of the contacts that they communicate with. Accordingly, many applications are configured to store this information so that it does not have to be committed to a person's memory. For example, email applications typically utilize directories that are configured for storing the email addresses of contacts that can be emailed. Likewise, telephony applications typically utilize directories for storing telephone numbers of contacts that can be called telephonically. Other non-limiting examples of applications that store contact information include time management applications, instant messaging applications, network gaming applications, business directory applications, VTC applications, and so forth.
Many hardware devices that are not considered traditional computers are also configured to store contact information. For example, many telephone devices, facsimile devices, and photocopying devices store contact information that may be used to perform a desired function such as initiating a telephone call, a facsimile transmission, a telecopy transmission, and so forth.
In order for a user to access the contact information that is be required for initiating a communication with a contact, a user can query the contact information directory that is associated with the application or the device that will be used to transmit the communication. This step of accessing a directory associated with an application, however, is somewhat undesirable because it increases the total amount of time that is required to initiate a communication. Even when the contact information is already known, the delay in time it takes to manually enter the known contact information is also somewhat undesirable.
Yet another problem with some applications that use contact information is that they utilize contact information directories that are designed to store only limited amounts of information. For example, some contact information directories are only configured to store the contact information that is required by the associated applications (e.g., a directory associated with a telephony application may only be configured to store the telephone numbers and not email addresses). Therefore, the amount of contact information that a user can obtain from any particular application can be somewhat limited.
Another problem with exiting contact management applications is that they provide different interaction models for interacting with the contacts and contact information, increasing the burden on the user to learn the various interaction models.